Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra brings in the camera upgrade I’ve been waiting for – Apple should be taking notes
I’ve never been a huge fan of ultra-wide cameras, even on some of the best camera phones. Too often, the cameras don’t have a high enough resolution to produce crisp photos when scrutinizing the detail, or there’s too much warping on the edges. I’ve always felt the physical limitation of the small sensors and lenses used in smartphone ultra-wide cameras hold them back from delivering the more impressive shots of main and telephoto cameras.
I’ve also never been a fan of how Samsung’s ultra-wide cameras in its Galaxy S-series, with photos that appear noisy and lacking sharpness, even occasionally looking a bit smudged when peering deeper into a shot.
However, with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, the South Korean tech giant appears to have turned a corner with its ultra-wide cameras. That’s because the S25 Ultra comes with a 50-megapixel rather than the 12MP ultra-wide camera of the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
It’s been a common idea that megapixels don’t mean a great deal when it comes to smartphone cameras, especially those on the best phones. But I’m starting to see a shift in the sands in that there’s only so much smart computational photography can do with 12MP sensors and images. In contrast, more detail sucked in by a higher megapixel sensor effectively means more data to process and, thus, more scope to get a better photo.
With the caveat that others on the TechRadar team and I are continuing to test the Galaxy S25 suite of smartphones, I quickly pitched the ultra-wide camera of the Galaxy S25 Ultra against the 12MP ultra-wide on my iPhone 16 Pro Max; my main phone.
In the photo samples below, you’ll see the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s ultra-wide camera in its default 12MP mode – an annoying default, but I understand it saves on file size – and 50MP shots, alongside 12MP iPhone 16 Pro Max snaps.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro Max ultra-wide photos
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At a quick glance, it’s not particularly easy to see huge differences between the shots other than different interpretations of colors; Samsung, as usual, favors punchier colors over the iPhone’s more muted take.
But look closer, and you’ll see finer details in the foreground of the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 50MP ultra-wide shots vs the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s. Punch into a shot, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra resolves sharper details than its rival.
The same is broadly true when comparing the 12MP ultra-wide versus the 50MP shots on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. You have to go on the hunt for changes, as both shots use the same camera sensors; just the 12MP images are being produced with pixel-binning to make a 50MP snap smaller.
Still, from what I can tell, this process naturally loses some detail on a shot but also removes a degree of dynamic range; in the 12MP shots, shadows and highlights are more uniform, whereas in the 50MP photos, there’s more of a gradient from light to dark.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra 50MP vs 12MP ultra-wide photos
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I find this pertinent, as recent conversations about flagship phone cameras have focused on how they tend to produce somewhat flat photos by bringing up the shadows and pulling down bright parts. This can bring out more detail but results in a photo that doesn’t look quite true to life and ends up lacking some contrast that can help make a photo pop.
So, my key takeaway for anyone planning to get a Galaxy S25 Ultra is to use the 50MP mode in the ultra-wide camera for the best results.
And I think this is a sign that Apple should look to follow the example set by the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Google Pixel 9 Pro, as well as the Pixel 8 Pro, and adopt a larger pixel count with the ultra-wide camera on the iPhone 17 Pro.
Head to the comment and let me know which ultra-wide photos you prefer, and do check out our full Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review; also, keep TechRadar bookmarked as we’ll have more thoughts and experiences with the Galaxy S25 phones as we keep digging into them.